Over Zealous Football Dad lands in hot water

A raucous father who admitted that he ‘kicks every ball’ whilst watching his 7-year old son play football for the ‘Magpies’ in the junior Maidenhead league, has landed himself in hot water.

Ames was a familar sight on the touchlines. It is reported that other parents were frequently disturbed by Ames’s aggressive shouts and gestures encouraging his son, amongst other things, to ‘get stuck in’ and ‘use the square ball’. Until last week, the behaviour was disruptive, but largely unthreatening. Ames' support for his son took a sudden turn for the worse in a 7 a-side friendly last Wednesday. He reportedly encouraged his son to ‘take him out’ - in reference to the Captain for the opposing side, Jacob 6. A melee ensued on the touch-lines after his son was shown the red card - with Ames allegedly then head-butting the father of the other boy. Following the match, Ames was reported to the local authorities by concerned parents who witnessed the event. He was driven from his home to a medium security hospital last night to undergo a mental health assessment.

Experts in Sports Psychology claim that this type of over-zealous ‘parenting’ behaviour can usually be explained by a parent’s own sporting under-achievement. “It is essentially the father’s attempt to rewrite his own sporting disappointment.” says Doctor Nolan from Warwick University. “In simplest terms, its vicarious living turned ugly”.

Investigations we made into Ames background seem to support this theory. His best sporting achievement was a third place in the 1976 Under-7s Egg and Spoon race at his junior school. Sources close to Ames revealed that he’d never quite got over being edged out of second spot by his best friend at the time, Jimmy 7. “He was never the same after that, and avoided PE and Games altogether”.

Parents at the football field today spoke of Ames “at last getting the help he needs”. Phil Sutcliffe, there to support his own son, added: “things are much better now without him shouting and hollering; and that cheating little son of his.”.